Thursday, November 12, 2009

Spoilers for tonight's "Parks and Recreation" - once again the highlight of NBC's Thursday comedies - coming up just as soon as I go to Arby's and watch "Frontline"...

First, I have to say that the scene pictured above, in which Ron "emitted a noise" that horrified both himself and Andy, nearly caused a medical crisis in the Sepinwall household, as it sent me into a laughing fit that gave me a case of the hiccups so extreme I briefly became worried that my throat was closing up. The combination of Nick Offerman's usual deadpan minimalism with Chris Pratt's goofy exuberance with an incredibly disturbing situation led to something that made me laugh as hard as I have in a very long time. Profoundly, profoundly silly comedy, that was.

And the rest of "The Camel" wasn't too shabby, either, as it offered an at times sweet, at times ridiculous look at the creative process being undertaken by a group of very uncreative people. Everyone got a moment to shine, whether it was Tom falling in love with his shapes or poor Jerry's beautiful (and perfect for the purposes of the project) painting being laughed at because he made the mistake of saying "murinal" (and because he's Jerry, the office punching bag).

The entire thing felt like what I imagine the group writing process on certain sitcoms can be: everyone pushing for their own joke, even if no one else gets it, and the most inoffensive, non-specific idea (in this case, Mark's painting of the man on the park bench) having the best chance at succeeding, because it's the safest bet. (In this case, Mark's writing in anticipation of the network notes.)

The ensemble is really gelling right now (it was nice to see the entire staff bond over how ridiculous the camel turned out to be), and "Parks and Rec" is becoming the kind of show where I imagine I'll enjoy even the less-funny episodes just because I enjoy the characters. But an episode like "Camel" had people I like to spend time with, and it had laughs, including a few huge ones in and around Andy's shoeshine stand.

I am starting to be seriously amazed at how good this show is, week after week. And as someone whose jobs have included work at both an art museum and a parks and rec, you can imagine how I loved this episode. All of the art was hilarious. It's been brilliant idea to open the show up to mock other areas of city government and culture.

And then to throw the bizarre little bunion story into the mix - I laughed so hard at Ron's inappropriate moan.

For some reason, I flashed to an alternate version of this episode written by Studio 60-esque Aaron Sorkin, where the art critiques would have been painfully obvious allegories of television process, and everyone involved would have been self-serving caricatures of people he disliked. It just leaves me all the more impressed that this whole episode was funny, and warm, and self-deprecating.

It's amazing how quickly this show has turned around. It's like a talented baseball prospect who gets a cup of coffee with the big league team, shows flashes of brilliance but largely struggles. Then, the next season, he completely breaks out and shows why he was a highly-regarded prospect in the first place. Given the Fire Joe Morgan team at the helm of show, it's an apt metaphor.

The characters have dramatically improved, the show is becoming consistently hilarious, Ron Effing Swanson! It's gone from being the 3rd best NBC comedy last season (given the great divide between The Office and 30 Rock and everything else) to being the absolute highlight of the night for NBC to a point where I feel like I can't judge The Office and 30 Rock's quality properly because Parks and Recreation is so good.

What NBC might want to do is to maybe give the show a shot behind The Office - that show is entrenched at 9/8, and as Community has shown, it provides a sizable lead-in, and Parks & Recreation maybe deserves a shot from Office viewers to see how good it is. It may be worth a shot to go 30 Rock, Community, The Office, and then Parks & Recreation at some point to help Community and P&R, which are both deserving of far better ratings fates.

At least what we have right now is a consistently good night of NBC comedy for once. Kath and Kim was an abomination minus John Michael Higgins. My Name is Earl was never the same post-strike and deserved its cancellation. Scrubs got on my nerves, and the show's lack of HD annoyed me as well. Now, we have 2 hours of comedy that are really really good, and the only complaint that I have is that the tag scene for 30 Rock leads into the first few seconds of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. It's a good time to be a fan of NBC comedies, and with all the shows safe for the season, we can at least enjoy them before the axe likely gets brought down on P&R and Community at the end of the season.

I practically woke up the neighbors bursting out in laughter at the moan. And with what is the highest praise in these dvr times, I immeditately rewound and re-watched that scene.

Totally agree that the cast is really gelling. As well as how it's becoming one of those shows where even when it's not at the top of it's game, it's enjoyable. Like HIMYM and Curb for me. I just smile getting to re-visit the world within the show.

The moan, plus the must've-been-about-five-seconds-but-felt-like-an-eternity pause of silence immediately afterward killed. I enjoy a good awkward silence as much as anyone else, but this one is probably in the top ten awkward silences ever (probably slotting above the drummer's outburst in Almost Famous).

I have to mention the mural that was the point of the contest. Every one of those have been hilarious and last night's was no exception. Offensive racial stereotypes and poorly executed? Check and check.

The improvement of this show and Community has really made NBC Thursday the best night of TV for me.

Parks and Rec has been the comedy highlght of Thursdays, by far. And that's with 3 other very good comedies, including the best 30 Rock of the season to date. Matching Nick Offerman's minimalist Ron F'ing Swanson with Chris Pratt's overly exuberant Andy is a wonderfully hilarious pairing.

I'm still laughing about the inappropriate moan and MJ and Jesus Greg Kinnear moonwalking away from the building. Hilarious. I do wonder if the cast's laughter in that scene, particularly Amy Poehler's was the result of some improv-ing because it felt so authentic.

Just to respond to ScottyG way up top: This is the second time I've seen an ad with an "alternative" version of a scene from the episode. The Halloween episode commercials had Ron making a joke about Almond Joys that wasn't in the actual episode. I like that they're basically using Deleted Scenes to provide funny but non-joke-spoiling ads for the show.

Like Jim Parsons on Big Bang Theory, Nick Offerman is right at the point where almost everything his character does is funny and a lot of what he does is downright inspired. I knew that Amy Poehler and Aziz Ansari were terrific but didn't really know much about Offerman except that he was married to Megan Mullaly. Now he's the best actor on a terrific show.

A week late in posting, but I also need to mention some things.--Still love Chris Pratt. HILARIOUS.--I TOO find myself whistling the Theme music. LOVE IT.--I like that I believe that these people are actually working and going through the motions of what an actual department does. I've never felt that from The Office.